Pride
by wyldcat
Summary: Kakashi has been carrying his pride for far too long, and he's doing everything he can to lose it. But sometimes, traces of the old Kakashi still remain. Spoilers for chapter 321.


Don't own Naruto. Spoilers for chapter 321.

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**Pride**

When Kakashi first saw his sensei perform the Rasengan, he was enthralled. Not that anyone could tell of course. Kakashi was far too taciturn for that (and he was a shinobi, for goodness sake, not a cute child). That's what he told himself. However, if anyone looked his way during the fighting against the rock nins and his sensei's surprise jutsu, they would have seen otherwise. "Oh you know that Hatake kid? He's not quite the emotionless shinobi we make him out to be. More like his father really…" they would say, and Kakashi would never allow for that sort of talk, whether it was within earshot or five hundred miles away. In a way then, he thanked the rock nin for almost killing him while distracted – it added to his count of near death experiences and consequently the marvellous escapes that boosted his reputation. Had the incident been taken in any other way, Kakashi would never allow it. His pride _couldn't_ allow for it.

It was only this that fuelled his desire (and yes, his arrogance) that he could do the Rasengan too, without help from his sensei or anyone else. He wasn't a genius for nothing.

But even his genius couldn't rid himself of Uchiha Obito. That crybaby ninja. Curiosity killed the cat, but _still_ that brat wouldn't leave him alone. Sometimes Kakashi wished that pathetic excuse of a ninja would suddenly disappear off the face of the earth.

He really pushed himself to complete the Rasengan when he eventually realised that asking for help would have taken him much less than the two months he took to get it down. It was some comfort then, as he only took less than a week to push it up to speed and power to rival his sensei's. Or so he thought. After comparing destruction power on innocent nearby trees, it was evident his sensei had been training too.

The look on Obito's face was priceless though.

And as Kakashi much later reflected on, it had been nice to have someone hate his guts for being one hell of a bratty genius. His arrogance had never done anyone any good, but it had taken him the loss of one particular crybaby ninja to realise that.

He forced out a chuckle and spoke to the memorial. "Naruto looked exactly like you did when I showed him the Rasengan today. The similarities were almost frightening." _Painful,_ he added silently.

"Still can't express your feelings out loud, Kakashi? It's not that hard… And whatever happened to that arrogance?" Obito gently teased.

Kakashi smiled ruefully. "That was a long time ago."

"So just _showing_ Naruto you could do the Rasengan had nothing to do with your ego? I find that hard to believe."

"Well like I said, his reaction was worth it. Like yours was."

Obito laughed. "Go home Kakashi. I didn't die just to keep you talking here for hours."

"Hmm…" Kakashi reluctantly pulled out of his thoughts and glanced around. The moonlight lit the training area in a pale glow, and he was struck by the time that had lapsed since he came in midafternoon. He straightened, working out the kinks in his joints, then slouched over again and stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Goodnight, Obito. See you tomorrow."

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Okay, I admit, that isn't the best that I've done. (Wrote half of it on paper and the other half on computer…and probably a total of one hour's work.) But the latest chapter was pretty inspiring. My guess is that Kakashi copied the Rasengan, then tried to fuse the lightning with it but couldn't, then switched to Chidori since it probably did more damage. And perhaps he found it cooler to use? (Not to mention more original.) And I dunno what was with Obito talking at the end. It just popped into the story.

Reviews are appreciated! (And stupid horizontal lines won't work. Oh well.)


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